Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Breast Self-Examination among Janitors at Public University Malaysia

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer worldwide including Malaysia. Breast self-examination is recommended as a screening method for early detection of breast cancer. The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to determine the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of breast self-examination among janitors at Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted by using simple random sampling, a total of 74 female janitors were recruited into this study. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaire consisting sociodemographic characteristic and level of knowledge, attitude and practice towards breast self-examination. Among participants, 29% (n=22) have good knowledge regarding breast self-examination, 91.9% (n=68) have positive attitude and 51.4% (n=38) have high practice of breast self-examination. There was no significant association between knowledge of breast self-examination and practice of breast self-examination. The study shows attitude of breast self-examination have significant association between practices of breast self-examination. There was no association between socio-demographic characteristic and practice of breast self-examination. This study is crucial because it will provide healthcare professionals the early data, they need to design an effective public awareness campaign that could result in early diagnosis and treatment, which might improve survival among breast cancer patients.